there and sunny this weekend. it will be a good time. thanks, connell. where is he going next? >> sandra: looks beautiful there. enjoy, connell. great assignment. all right. great two hours. great to be with you. i'm sandra smith. >> john: good to be with you. tomorrow, friday eve. i'm john roberts. "the story" with martha starts now. >> martha: thanks, guys. thank you. brand new developments right now as the white house admits that it's dealing with a cluster of crises. that is just one of them. the middle east is on fire and on the verge of a war. then a southern border situation. now seeing escalation of migrants getting in despite the administration claims. >> the border is closed. we are expelling single adults

and families. we will not expel unaccompanied children. >> martha: more in a moment. a russian cyber attack and now more than 1,000 u.s. gas stations have no fuel at all in that region of the country. leaving drivers on edge. watch this. >> it's a little nerve racking. >> it's crazy. >> this is my third gas station. we finally found one. >> martha: a stunning new economic report shows that throwing trillions at the covid economy while it was starting to reopen is starting to drive prices higher at a rate not seen in over a decade. lots of warnings that this would happen. pretty much everything you buy is seeing rising prices. david asman and brian kilmeade are here on the couch with me, which is an interesting experience. looking forward to that. but first, edward lawrence in virginia with more on the

growing gas crisis. and then to the white house with peter doocy. peter? >> martha, you've mentioned all of those different things going on, but the focus of this first meeting with the republican leadership and president biden since he took office at the white house is infrastructure. officials here and with the republican offices say the meeting was productive. we're hearing the president enjoyed hosting his republican friends. so far we don't have any reason to think a new bipartisan bond has been built. >> we're going to get going. that's it. >> how do you expect to do that, sir? >> it will happen. >> so we're hearing there was no horse trading at today's meeting. it was trying to figure out where there is and where there is not common ground on infrastructure. now the fall-out in the open that there's fundamental differences between democra and republicans about the definition of infrastructure. the white house continues to argue that it can include things

like paid leave and child care. but republicans argue it doesn't. >> we first have to start with the definition of what is infrastructure. that's not home health. roads, bridges, highways, airport. broad band. those are the places that we can work together. >> infrastructure is an important enough issue to this president that it led to this initial invitation to the republican leaders. we're told that infrastructure chewed up most of the two hours or so that the big four was meeting with the president and the vice president. kevin mccarthy said there was brief mention of israel and inflation as well. those are two issues that republicans on capitol hill really want the president to show more leadership on. martha? >> martha: the biden white house needs a win on infrastructure. we'll see if they get it. peter, thank you. more on the growing gas crisis across the country. who saw this coming?

this enormous hack by a russian entity. fox business correspondent edward lawrence joins us. hi, edward. >> in alexandria, virginia, this gas station out of premium and mid grade. they have less than 1,500 gallons. i watched the price here. started at $3.29 for regular. went to $3.34. now 3.49. so the victims of the ransomware are all of these trying to get gas here. there's a line that goes through the parking lot. 44% of all the gas stations in the state of virginia don't have gas. according to gas buddy. 65% of the gas stations in the state of north carolina don't have any gas. this is video that we shot earlier of the manager here directing traffic. with this spike in demand now, you have seen the highest prices of gas since november of 2014.

we're talking about overnight jumps of eight cents in georgia, south carolina, virginia. that's from last night to tonight. or today. 7 cents in north carolina and tennessee. all prompted by the gas shortage that has been reported throughout the southeast from florida to virginia. >> i saw everyone freaking out on social media. i was like okay, might as well get gas. my gas light turned on last night, too. here we are. >> still no gas flowing through that pipeline. one industry consultant says that the pipeline supplies 45% of the gas to the east coast. the company says that it would have the supply running by the end of this week. 10,000 trucks are trucking gas in to the affected areas, not just gas from automobiles, airlines are also impacted. american airlines says the long haul flights will make an extra stop to refuel, specifically out of charlotte. we're talking about charlotte to hawaii and charlotte to london.

they're talking other stops to make sure that they have enough gas to make the long haul. >> martha: because it's important, that you make it across the ocean. here now, "fox and friends" co-host, brian kilmeade and fox business host, david asman. thanks to edward in the field. brian, let's start with you. what do you make of this gang of four meeting? first time that mcconnell and mccarthy have stepped foot in the white house to talk to now president biden. >> interesting to see how many staffers were around. joe biden and mitch mcconnell got along. but they diverse right now on the new joe biden agenda, where he was a moderate in the 70s and the 80s but not close to it now. mitch mcconnell made a huge mistake last week by saying i'm out to stop the biden agenda. he made that mistake with obama. they used it to hammer him. he said i'll be open to it. it's fascinating going into this. the republicans said 800 bill.

he's 2.4 trillion. if you cut out the human structure, it's about the same price. what the republicans say, let's just handle this in fees, not taxes. he is like now, i have a great idea how to raise taxes. you think this is something that they can get together on. with police reform, maybe they can get on that and somewhat of a roll if they choose. >> martha: yeah. far be it from me, senator mcconnell is a great negotiator. to tell someone out fronts we'll go as high as $800 billion on this bill seems like an interesting way -- >> it's a huge divide. it's hard to imagine any kind of compromise can be arranged when you start with such a gap between $800 billion and $2 trillion. a huge gap. but to your point about biden and his change, he was a moderate running up to the election. that's how he campaigned. as a moderate guy. and on spending. he wasn't as bad as aoc and the

squad. now the squad is saying this guy is great. he's doing what we suggested. it's all tied in to the inflation and the gas prices. because the more he spends, the more the fed tries to buy up that debt by printing money in order to keep interest rates low. and without many people going to work because you have all of these great benefits, you have eight million -- 8.1 million unfilled jobs in our economy because people are getting paid more to stay at home -- >> the data says that is not happening. >> the fact is, that means you have fewer things being created. inflation is very real. >> martha: inflation. >> it's very simple. it's too much money with too few goods. because people aren't working. >> martha: now we have two few gaps in a big way. now we're buying gas from the russians? >> we had energy independent a

few months ago. gas was $2 a gallon in new jersey. where you're from. you can see $2 a gallon. november 7, i took a picture. i knew it wasn't going to last after the election. the fact is we're losing energy independence because of the fact we have a shortage. they say it's temporary. i don't think it's going to be temporary. i think it's going to get worse. we're now importing our gasoline. they say it's coming from canada. a lot of the canadian gas is actually coming from russian. you have foreign gas. the reason that we had long gas lines in the 70s is we were dependent on energy from other countries. the oil sheiks. now it's russian, even china might be converting their coal, which is dirty stuff into natural gas and we'll be importing that. >> martha: raises question whether there is a connection. people say this is a corporate issue for this gas pipeline company. it's not a state driven issue. the russians have to say that worked out well from us. they're buying rush oil again

after shale transformed the united states energy to a points that we had no dependence on other countries for energy, which was astonishing. i want to play this sound bite. play the second one from jennifer granholm at the department of energy. i want brian to react to this. keystone went bye bye, remember. watch this. >> this particular area of the country, this is why we have doubled down on ensuring there's an ability to truck oil in, gas in. but it's -- the pipe is the best way to go. >> martha: the pipe is the best way to go. >> she's unaware what he just said. there were questions of people trying to work with her and say -- reporters say why don't you put it on trains? i don't think so. how about trucks? we don't have enough drivers. the best way to go. wasn't that the point of the xl pipeline? they did the environmental pipeline studies and said it had zero impact studies. you should do this. it slowed down but president trump goes no, i'm taking that.

builds it too slows or we wouldn't have this problem. then he said we're stopping it. this is something we're not looking to do. she basically said everything republicans were doing. it's maddening. it's so obvious that this is not in the best interests of americans. not democrats or republicans. may help their party, but doesn't help the people watching us right now that don't care about the party. if you tell somebody i'm a republican or democrat, they don't care. they have to buy lumber and it's more expensive. they don't wear what the ads say, what the talk shows reveal. they know the truth. what was it like before? there was no jobs plan for president trump. but wages were rising. how do i know? my check was bigger. it's practical knowledge, not graphs and pie charts. >> that's why his friends in the press won't help him on this one. people see it with their own eyes. >> martha: david, here's the thing. you have this efforts to spend another $1.9 trillion on infrastructure. so the spigot is still flowing in a big way. unemployment going out till

september with the -- so at some point does the biden white house say maybe we need to follow this lead that we're seeing a lot of republican governors do across the country and cut off these benefits through septembers because the economy is starting to move on its own. it's inflationary. >> a lot of states are doing it on their own. more states now -- i talked to asa hutchison -- >> martha: the governor of georgia, brian kemp is giving an update on the colonial pipeline. let's listen in. >> the environmental protection agency for the use of the winter fuel that was held in storage. as of late last night, that waiver was approved. i'd like to thank the epa for doing so. while we do not believe the winter fuel mix will be enough to completely fix the shortages we're currently seeing, we're optimistic it will help increase simply in the short term. in terms of new actions today, i will be receiving a briefing from the georgia cyber center

soon in order to ensure all of state government is prepared for what may come our way next. my staff is also engaged in the cyber security advisory board, which my office launched in 2019 following the cyber attack on the department of public safety. compromise to professionals -- comprised i'd be better off saying, of professionals from the georgia national guard, homeland security agency, the gbi, the georgia cyber center and the georgia technology authority, this advisory board will be coordinating with state agencies so that they're proactive as possible in preventing any other potential attacks to our state systems. i'll note here that all state employees are required to complete quarterly cyber security training. while we're currently not aware of any potential threats to state systems, we're doing all

we can to ensure that it's an attempt that has made our employees and agencies well-equipped to respond. my main message to georgians today is that the most effective way to address the fuel shortages we're experiencing is for everyone to remain calm and only get the fuel you need to carry out essential activities. please do not go out and fill up every five gallon can that you have. doing so will only mean the shortage will last longer and more georgians will be unable to make it to work, take their kids to school or get to their medical appointment. we continue to be hopeful that clone yeah will resume normal operations by the end of the week. while we await further action from the federal government, rest a sured the state is taking every as a available to us to make this fuel shortage short and painless as possible. with that i'm going to turn it

over to the attorney general to address price gouging. >> martha: david, what do you through? >> you think of the fact that a city like charlotte, north carolina, 70% of all the gas stations in charlotte have no gas right now. 70%. it's the same in raleigh, north carolina. this is in georgia that we're talking about. but when you have situations like this, it can bring a city that is trying to get back on its feet, bring it back to life. if they had the gas. now they're getting killed again. this is just as bad as the lockdown. if this goes on much longer -- again, there's questions about whether they will fix the colonial situation soon. this goes on much longer a lot of companies will go out of business. they need energy. they have to get it. they can't because the gas stations are running out. >> martha: a pandemic and look at the impact on the economy from the pandemic. now you've got this cyber situation. it's highly likely that we will see more attacks of this kind,

especially when people see how effective it is and the ransomware might get paid. >> the russians are involved in this. the gru is involved. vladimir putin approved everything. so he's all over this. the presentation sure has to be on. he has to be sent a message. sending a diplomat home was not the message. we have to blink the lights over there. they're loving every second of this. >> killing americans. >> martha: what is coming up tonight? >> tonight at 7:00, we'll be discussing this and general petraeus and afghanistan. senator marco rubio will be joinings and how to get through fear we have to the pandemic. the ultimate navy seal, leadership principles. some of the things on tonight. >> martha: great line-up. thanks. great to have you both here. thanks. so as brian was just saying, climate envoy john kerry on the

hill with his mask speaking clearly about his response to what he did and did not say to the iranian foreign ministers. we'll show you what went down there. republican congressman michael waltz wants to weigh-in on that and why andrew yang and aoc are not seeing eye to eye on something next.

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confronting john kerry on camera about a "new york times" report that he leaked information to iran. watch this. >> did you provide information to mr. zarif on israeli operations against iranian backed terrorists? >> never. >> so mr. zarif is a liar? >> mr. zarif may be confused or incorrect. i'm telling you that didn't happen, end of story. >> martha: end of story, he says. kerry was testifying on the hill as president biden's special envoy for the climate. missiles fired from the gaza strip. this time killing a 21-year-old israeli soldier. during the worst round of violence that we have seen in this area in years. pro palestinian protesters and police clashing another night.

rioters torched police cars and synagogues. quite a scene in the gaza strip. israeli air strikes hit a 13-story residential building. it crumbled on to the street. the israeli military said it housed hamas intelligence officers. let's go live to trey yingst near the border of israel and gaza once again. hi, trey. >> martha, good afternoon. we're getting new information just now according to israeli media. israel's security cabinet has voted to increase strikes on hamas, the group in control of gaza. this comes after more than 1,200 rockets had been fired from the strip in to israel since monday night. as you noted, the israelis have been responding with air strikes inside gaza. you can see the video. the iron dome missile defense

system has been busy across southern and central israel intercepting rockets that have been fired from the strip. israel making a point to strike a number of targets in gaza that are significant pieces of infrastructure and taking out at least ten hamas commanders that are part of the group's ability to strike with rocket fire and anti-tank fire. today one israelly soldier was killed after a hamas anti-tank unit fired toward a jeep containing soldiers. we asked the doctor in charge in the emergency room how injuries were and what type of weaponry hamas is using. take a listen. >> over the years, what we've seen is an increase in the violence of the ordinnants, like

the missiles in the residential areas. over the years we've seen that they have more power, more explosive power. >> the death toll on both sides is rising today in gaza. 64 people are dead. 16 are children according to the hamas-run health ministry. cease fire efforts are underway. both sides appear unwilling to come to the table at this point. as we noted at the top, the israelly security cabinet has increased strikes against hamas, the group in control over gaza. >> martha: thanks, trey. thanks so much. trey yingst on the border in israel. republican congressman michael waltz of florida served multiple tours in afghanistan as a green beret commander. counter terrorism adviser to dick cheney and a member of the house armed services committee. good to have you with us. what is your reaction where this stands in the middle east?

>> thanks, martha. clearly john kerry was running a shadow foreign policy, in complete violation of the logan act and multiple meetings with zarif. i don't buy that he didn't share what the israelis were doing because he's been on record as saying netanyahu's government was destabilizing. he was the architect of reaching out to iran. so it's very clear iran -- excuse me -- israel is our ally. hamas is a terrorist organization backed by iran. every one of those rockets are provided and funded and trained by iran. you know, shame on the left for trying to make this moral equivalence of what they're doing. hamas is firing rockets on civilian and hiding behind their honey civilians. i've been out there. many of these israelis have

seconds to get in a bunker. they all have bunkers in their house. the biden's administration response is to throw more cash at the palestinians and throw more cash at the iranian regime in this vain hope that everyone will be nice to each other. it's naive and destabilizing and wrong. >> martha: your colleagues on the other side of the aisle are having an interesting debate about israel and hamas. alexandria ocasio-cortez came out slamming michael yang -- excuse me. andrew yang. she said it's shameful for him to show it at an eid event after a strike that killed nine children, especially after his silence after the mosque was attacked. so he had said he was standing with the people of israel who were coming under attack. now he has doubled back on that statement. we have his new statement that we can put up on the screen now

as well. a new tweet from andrew yang saying that, you know, sorry for what i said. he says they felt that my tweet was overly simplistic in the treatment of a conflict has a long history. of course they were correct what do you think? >> one more example of the biden administration saying one thing, trying to sound moderate and kowtowing to the left. we're across the board seeing joe biden's jimmy carter moment here. a crisis on the border, a crisis in the middle east, a surrender in afghanistan. we have gas lines for the first time since the 70s, a labor crisis. this is a jimmy carter all over again. it's because the progressives and the left are in charge. i think that backtracking on our greatest ally in the middle east, israel, is just one case in point.

>> martha: it reminded me of this sound bite from then candidate biden back in february of 2020. here's what he said. >> my lord. if i get elected president of the united states with my position on healthcare, my position on global warming, my position on foreign policy, my position on the middle class, this will go down as one of the most progressive administrations in american history. >> martha: he laid it out clearly. >> he did. many of us in the campaign warned america what was going to happen if the progressives are in charge. that's what we're seeing. but for a few senators in the filibuster, we would be fundamentally changing america. stacking the supreme court, run-away taxes, run-away regulation. centralizing how we vote out of washington d.c. going after the electoral college. that is because under girding all of that they believe this is a fundamentally flawed country that is massagist, racist and

colonialist. that america is the problem and israel are part of the problem, not our adversaries like china, russia and iran. that's at the heart of the issue. you'll see that play out time and time again. >> martha: representative michael waltz, thanks very much. always good to see you. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> martha: we've been talking ant, there's a number of really big challenges facing the white house right now. they're all converging domestically, internationally and in a moment, the president will step out and take some questions, we believe, so we want to see what he says about some of these crises, whether it's the gas lines or what is happening in the middle east or what about the question of how his cdc has handled covid? now you're learning about the very low transmission that was actually ever occurring outside. what was going on? we'll be right back. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes

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>> martha: breaking now, we're awaiting an nypd presser on the suspect that is now in custody. you remember this story from a day or so ago. bullets rang out in sometimes square over the weekend. we'll have the breaking developments when folks get in front of the microphones and we learn something new, we'll let you know. also, the former acting defense secretary under president trump says he stands by every decision that he made on the day of the capital riots. christopher miller testified at a house oversight committee hearing today. the democratic chair woman says the federal government was not prepared to respond to the riot. watch. >> despite all the military around law enforcement resources our government can call upon in a crisis, security collapsed in the face of the mob and reinforcements were delayed. >> i stand by every decision i

made january 6 and the following days. our nation's armed forces are to be deployed for domestic law enforcement only when all civilian assets are expended and only as an absolute last resort. >> martha: former acting attorney general, jeffery rosen also testified. he said he was proud of how the justice department prepared for and responded to the january 6 riots. and liz cheney is now out of leadership after she was refused to back down on her position towards former president trump and his claims of a stolen election. the former president calls her a poor leader and a war monger. >> the trump political team is actively looking to coalesce around a primary challenger to you. what is your message to them? >> bring it on. >> martha: bring it on saysless cheney. elise stefanik is running to replace cheney. stefanik has the support of the

house house republican, kevin mccarthy. she's expected to get the job of conference chair on friday. i recently asked former education secretary betsy devos about where the republican party goes from here and whether it includes her former boss, president trump after citing the january 6 attacks on the capitol in her resignation letter from the white house which happened january 7. watch. >> you resigned january 7. in your letter you heralded what you saw as the many accomplishments of the trump administration and of your work in the department of education. you ended by saying the behavior of those that stormed the capitol was unconscious and there was no mistaking that your rhetoric to the president had on the situation and it was an inflection point for me. impressionable children are watching this and they must learn from us. what do you think when you hear those words again at this point? >> well, i think that we should

all continue to aspire to be a more perfect union and that we need to be talking about ways to bring people together. we had a lot of accomplishments under the trump administration. in the department of education and across the whole government. we should be talking about those and we should be championing those and really helping individuals to be empowered to continue to better themselves. those are the things -- we need to be looking forward, ahead and how we can become that more perfect union. >> martha: you think you made the right decision to resign that day? >> i do. it was a difficult day, very difficult decision. like i said in my letter to the president, we have so many accomplishments. it would have been my hope that we would be talking about those than and looking forward how we can continue to build on those. >> martha: last question. what do you think about the liz cheney situation being pushed out as a member of the republican leadership? >> again, i think the party and

everyone involved in leadership has to be looking ahead, building on the successes of the past administration and looking to the future on how we're going to continue to contrast what travesties are going on under this current administration and to contrast our ideas and our goals for the future of this country and -- >> martha: you think the party can succeed without president trump? >> president trump will play a very important part of this party's future, of our country's future. there's lots of other individuals too, that have great ideas. we need to be talking about ideas about policies that will make a difference in the lives of people that will give more and more individuals the opportunities to become everything that they're meant to be. >> martha: thanks to betsy devos in speaking to us. and brand new this hour, lawmakers now want to go the defund route on critical raise theory programs in u.s. schools.

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>> martha: this just happened on capitol hill. house republicans are pushing to defund critical race theory programs that are being taught in u.s. classrooms. watch this. >> we're divvying up our country by teaching children that america is evil. it's like a great equalizing philosophy. it is anything but. >> i'm proud to be here today to stand with my colleagues and the freedom caucus and to say hell no to this racist propaganda. >> martha: also on the hill, republican senators say enough is enough at the border. border breaches escalate to the highest levels in two decades.

>> there's a manmade crisis on our border. 100% caused by one person, joe biden. his immigration policies are putting unaccompanied minors at the risk of violence and separation of families and abuse. if there's no other reason for joe biden to say he has to change, think about the young children and what is happening to them. >> martha: think about this as you look at these -- this video and the photos. five migrant girls, one was 11 months old left with some of the other children. abandoned near a texas ranch. the rancher that found them initially thought that one of these little girls was dead because she was dehydrated. very high temperatures in the desert in texas right now. a terrible situation for these children. i'm joined by mark meadows, former chief of staff to president donald trump. he joined me now.

good to see you again. thanks for being here. >> great to be with you, martha. >> martha: i want to play this sound bite. this is peter doocy talking to secretary mayorkas about the border. here's what he said. >> we have cameras in places showing humongous groups of migrants walking in. i'm curious what you meant last week when you said the border is closed. >> what i meant is precisely that, the border is closed. we are expelling single adults and families under the title 42 authority. we will not expel unaccompanied children. >> martha: it's hard to figure out how he can say the border is closed when you look at people crossing it fearly. >> yeah, martha. you're right. when we look at the rhetoric coming out of the white house. i talked to some friends earlier today. dave and brenda. when they talked about what was happening in our country, the downward spiral, we don't have

to look any further than what is happening on our television and israel, what is happening at the southern border. there's no way that they can say our border is closed when you have two decade record that was just broken under the biden administration with a number of people that are coming across the southern border. it is time that biden gets control of things and actually starts -- actually working like a president. trump did before him where he takes control of this and said enough is enough. we've put out the welcome mat. somehow we're surprised that so many people are coming across? >> martha: i don't know if he means the checkpoints are closed. i think that's what he's saying, that the official border is closed and he said we're still using title 42. so essentially they're returning adults back to the days of when the trump administration was lambasted and separating

families for separating children from their parents, you know. say what you will about that. a lot of criticism for that. but i don't know how you can say that that is not exactly what is happening here as well, mark. these parents are obviously saying if they're only taking kids, just send the kids. you see how it ends up with the girls. >> martha, you're right. when you look at children being affected, trafficking that is happening, the real horrific story that you led in with. when you look at the poor kids that have been left for dead and yet we somehow have coming out of the west wing that everything is okay. i can tell you, the place that is closed is the west wing. they're not getting the feedback from the american people that said this is not only out of control, but what it is, martha, it is a direct attempt by the biden administration to change

the voting electorate in texas so that they can make sure that president races are once again supported by the democrat party in texas. i just -- i find it incomprehensible. >> martha: what i find incomprehensible that this is a humane way to do it when i look at the children crying and alone. >> it breaks your heart. >> martha: i cannot imagine. i want to play this from senator chuck schumer for you blaming immigration policies for why we have a worker shortage right now. listen. >> there are many, many reasons that -- there's a shortage of workers. some of it is because trump cut off immigration so severely. >> you know, when you look at the jobs report, we went from a healthy economy to one where it's so anemic in the last jobs report, it has everything to do with sending taxpayer dollars

out there in terms of checks where people can make more by staying at home than showing up for work. i talked to a business guy earlier today. when i spoke to him, he said i can't find workers. not only have i increased the amount that i'm actually paying but i have to put a sign out that says please come help me. >> martha: i hear it all over the place unsolicited. people say i would open this but i can't find anyone to work. signs everywhere from massachusetts, new york, new jersey, all over the place. people looking for workers. mark meadows, thank you. always good to see you. >> great to be with you. >> martha: we expect to hear from president biden and we want the tune in because of the major issues that the white house is confronting. he's going to talk about vaccine but high anticipation about spiking inflation in the country, gas lines that we haven't seen since the 70s and a war that is brewing in the middle east.

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>> martha: breaking now, the nypd is providing an update on the suspect in custody. he went from times square to florida before they were able to catch up with him. two women and a 4-year-old girl were wounded in that gun fire. alex hogan has more from times square. hi, alex. >> hi, martha. the presser just wrapped up. what police say is that the remarkable part of this is that the public really helped to bring this man in to custody. they received multiple tips and were able to follow that suspect home, seeing him in north carolina through security video and tracking him down to florida. it's been four days and more than 1,300 miles until he eventually was taken into custody in a mcdonald's parking

lot in stark, florida, between gainsville and jacksonville. it was saturday when shots rang out here in times square injuring a woman and a 4-year-old child. police promised the girl's father that there would be justice. >> at the time i had the opportunity to speak to the father to tell him that we were sorry, that we would do everything in our power to get justice for his girl. today we filled that promise. >> mayor bill de blasio competing if you commit gun violence in new york city, you will face the consequences. police still continuing to talk about how they got this suspect in custody. they say it's something that they wouldn't have been able to do if it wasn't for the people immediately calling and gave the

tips when they thought they saw the man in the pictures that were shared immediately after the tragic incident that we saw here. martha? >> martha: great coordination and great work by the nypd from the beginning of that attack through the apprehension. thanks, alex. so we are waiting for president biden. he's going to speak about vaccines and covid-19 as his cdc facing major blowback. "the new york times" calls out the director for calling 0 it a misleading statistic about how easy it is to catch covid outdoors. rachelle walensky said less than 10% of documented transmission studies have occurred outdoors. the times talk to epidemiologists that say the real rate let's like it's less than 1% and could be even lower than 1%. saying that less than 10% of covid transmission occurs out died is akin to saying that shark attacks -- there's fewer than 20,000 swimmers attacked by

sharks a year when the real number is 150. it's both true and deceiving they write in "the new york times." the cdc director defending the research that led the her number. watch. >> i think over 19 studies were included. the top line result was less than 10% published in the journal of infectious disease. that's where that came from. >> martha: on the hot seat there today. this is dr. francis collins. great to have you with us. i think a lot of people suspected this outdoor transmission is probably low and yet you have cities across the country where people are still walking around wearing masks. what do you say about this? >> well, i think the cdc has been clear if you're vaccinated, you can go around without a mask. that's what i'm doing. we had a party on our streets for a birthday for a 5-year-old.

almost the whole street has been vaccinated. we were able to be together. first time in a year. let's celebrate that stuff and not fuss too much about the details and percentages. you know, martha, i want the say something happened this afternoon. the cdc's advisory committee did vote 14-0 to approve the use of the pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds. that's a big deal. a chance for those kids to get immunized, get to sports, do sleepovers, all of the things that they have been deprived of. >> martha: it is a good story, doctor. before i let you go, why three members of the yankee team a coach and two players, all vaccinated according to the reports, all got covid. i believe they took the johnson & johnson vaccine for whatever that is worth. what is going on? >> let's be clear. the vaccines are incredibly effective. 95% is not the same as 100%. so there's going to be what we call break-throughs where people

that were fully vaccinated still got exposed and still got the illness. i will say people in those break-through situations tend to have very mild illness because their immune system is well-primed for this. so we shouldn't be surprised by this. we should always wonder, is that a virus that we ought to worry about? is there one particularly contagious or an immune system that is detective. >> martha: i just have about 30 seconds. any update on the india variant and whether or not the existing vaccines cover it? >> yes, there is an update. last time we talked about this, i was still waiting for that data. the data is coming in and looks encouraging that the u.s.a. proved vaccines to pfizer, moderna and the j&j do have effectiveness against this variant called b 1617.

it's a little less effective. looks like it's good enough to make americans protected. that's a good thing to hear. >> martha: send as many as we can to india as well to help the global population. >> yes. so heart breaking over there. >> martha: thank you so much, sir that is "the story" for this wednesday. the "the story" goes on. >> see you back here tomorrow. charles payne is next. >> charles: prices on everything soaring and now fuel shortages from the pipeline hack are getting gas stations. prices hitting $3 for the first time in seven years. i'm charles payne in for neil cavuto. this is "your world." it's an expensive world and we have you covered. jonathan serrie on the panic setting in at the pump. chuck grassley on why more washington spending will only